Container List

Series 1. Oakland Office: Early Miscellaneous Material, 1924-1952..

Physical Description:
Cartons 1-3; Carton 4, folders 1-24.

Arrangement

Arranged alphabetically within subseries.

Scope and Content Note

Divided into three subseries: Contracts and Agreements, Financial Material,
and Projects. These files, along with a few folders in the Historical
Library Subject Files (Series 15) and in the Additions to the Henry J.
Kaiser Papers (Series 16 & 17), contain the only material which
relates to Kaiser's early paving operations and larger joint construction
ventures. During this period, Kaiser Paving Company and Henry J. Kaiser
Company worked with the Warren Brothers, Bechtel, and Morrison companies,
both separately and in joint concerns with Columbia Construction Company,
Consolidated Builders, Inc., Industrial Engineering Company, and the Six
Companies of California, building tunnels, jetties, pipe lines, bridges, and
dams. This series lacks information about the Cuban roadbuilding operation
and the major dams but does include some material on early quarries and
gravel operations, the Oakland Bay Bridge (1933-1936), Coos Bay and Gray's
Harbor Jetties (1938-1939), New York Tunnels (1938), Ruby Dam (1937-1939),
and Shasta Dam Aggregates (1938-1940).

Contains files from Henry J. Kaiser's office at the central headquarters of
the growing Kaiser operations, including inter-office memos, incoming and
carbons of outgoing correspondence and telegrams, reports, reference
material, clippings, publications, and advertisements. Although Kaiser had
established his headquarters in Oakland as early as 1921, it is only with
diversification, beginning with the shipbuilding concerns, that the office
files were systematically saved. These general files reflect overall
involvements and concerns, but do not contain detailed information about
specific operations, in part because Kaiser conducted much of his business
over the telephone, leaving few written records of arrangements and
negotiations. From 1945-1957, the general files served as Kaiser's permanent
or central files and thus, contain the bulk of his correspondence and
business records. Activities during the years, 1943-1949, may be augmented
by the New York Office: General Files (Series 8).

In November 1947, newspaper writer, Robert Elliott, became Kasier's Executive
Assistant; in 1949, he assumed responsibility for the Oakland files, which
then began to contain more reference and speech materials. When Kaiser moved
to Hawaii in 1954, the focus of his operations shifted from Oakland to the
Hawaiian Office. Elliott joined Kaiser in Hawaii in 1957 and the character
of the Oakland files changed again. While the general filing system and
format remained fairly constant throughout the entire 24 years, the
character and specifics of filing often varied from year to year. For
instance, material relating to health care plans might be filed under
Health, Health Insurance, Hospitals, The Permanente Foundation, or the
Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, or by the names of specific hospitals and
clinics.